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That day, Cooper messaged another man and accused him of seeing Laura behind his back.

He wrote: “I’m ready to kill mate that’s how I feel. I invested 3 years plus of my life into her, and she f***ed me over.”

And to Laura he wrote: “Im gomma ruin u Laura.

“Ruin u get out of Denbigh.”

On August 7, he sent Laura a message accusing her of seeing another man and telling her he would kill her.

In the Golden Lion, he was abusive towards her and threw a handful of coins on the floor next to her. She was visibly upset but his texts to her continued.

“Made u a promise 3 years ago? F*** me over wat happens.”

“The amount of shit u causing Laura Im putting end to it I want u out this town.”

“U have pushed me as far as I will go now. My advice to u Laura is run.”

In other messages, he spoke of erasing her: “I will put end to her shit and it’s so easy for me and it will happen.”

To a workmate he wrote: “I have had thoughts of murder and suicide all in 1 lately.

“I don’t want her mate I would kill her right now if I seen her.”

The killing

The day before the killing, Cooper had been out drinking and was ejected from the Golden Lion where Ms Stuart was with friends.

He returned home where his lodger Ian Jones thought Cooper was in a normal mood and was not drunk.

It was then he took a knife from the block in the kitchen and went back out into Denbigh in search of his former partner.

Over a period of about two hours, he walked around Denbigh, waiting for her to leave the pub so that he could attack her.

There was no other reason for him to be out at that time of the evening in possession of a knife. He knew where Ms Stuart lived and the route she would have to take to get home.

He continued to send messages to her and threatened to kill her and a male friend, writing: “Is he willing to die?”

The second - for Ms Stuart - was far more chilling: “R u?”

Three minutes later, he sent her a message: “Hide all you want.”

CCTV showed Cooper walking towards the Golden Lion pub at about 3am.

At 3.01am, he sent a text to David Roberts saying he knew he was there with her.

He sent Laura texts asking where she was, telling her that he was at home in bed.

He did not want her to have any idea that he was lying in wait, said prosecuting barrister David Elias QC.

By about 3.30am, Ms Stuart was desperate. She sent a text: “Jason! STOP! U r p***ed I am not. Stop with this sh*t.”

He replied with two texts: “Laura im.not p***ed”, and “My mind is made up”.

The prosecution said he had a clear plan and he was going to carry it out.

CCTV then showed Cooper walking from High Street to Love Lane and back again as he waited for Ms Stuart to walk home.

At about 3.50am, Ms Stuart, Mr Roberts and his father Gareth Roberts left the Golden Lion.

They walked on to High Street and had no idea that they were being watched or that Cooper was waiting.

Cooper ran after them and, as he came close to them outside the Halifax near the Love Lane junction, he raised the knife above his head, lunged at Laura and stabbed her in the head, back and chest.

Mr Roberts attempted to stop the attack and put himself between them but he was stabbed in the elbow, shoulder and ear.

While Ms Stuart was on the ground bleeding, Cooper kicked her to her face and stomach with enough force to cause fractures to her nose and cheekbone. By that point, she was defenceless and covered in blood.

He told people alerted by her screams: “I said I was going to do it and I did”, and “They’re not going to mess with me again.”

Cooper was seen to be smiling. At one point, he offered the knife to Gareth Roberts who refused it.

Shortly after 4am, he sent texts to friends: “I just murdered Laura”, and “Sorry mate couldn’t handle it I murdered Laura.”

Police “bodycam” footage recorded him telling officers: “I’m saying this now for the record. I have no intention of hurting anybody else.

“I’ll obviously need representation for this.

“Thing is mate, I’m not sorry about that, I am about him.

“I lost my mind, lost my missus, lost my house, lost everything, and she’s the cause of it.

“There you go. It’s not one of those psychopathic things where you just go nuts for no reason. There’s a reason for it.

“She thought she was going to live her life and leave me in the lurch and she’d be as happy as Larry, f*** about and do whatever she wants...not on my watch.”

Cooper's mental state

The prosecution said Cooper knew exactly what he was doing that night. The jealousy and hatred that had built up over the preceding days and weeks culminated in the fatal attack.

He hunted her down in the street and killed her, said prosecuting barrister David Elias QC.

Cooper told the jury that, before the attack, he was in the worst place he had ever been in his life.

He said he was drinking too much and, while he did not remember much of the attack, he said he did not form an intention to harm Laura Stuart.

He remembered bits and pieces only, he said.

Two psychiatrists disagreed over Cooper’s mental state.

A psychiatrist called by the defence told the jury that Cooper was suffering from an abnormality of mental functioning due to alcohol dependence syndrome.

But a consultant forensic psychiatrist for the prosecution said that, while Cooper had an alcohol dependence, he believed the defendant knew what he was doing.

Both agreed that Cooper’s ability to understand the nature of his own conduct was not significantly affected at the material time.